Third graders recently completed a unit on magnetism and electricity. They learned about the magnetic force, how magnetic fields interact, and what types of materials “stick” to magnets. They learned how to light a bulb with one wire and one battery, which is tricky but can be done! Students then built circuits using wires, switches, lights, and batteries as components. They learned the difference between series and parallel circuits, and as a final activity, students discovered how to make an electromagnet with a nail, a long piece of wire, and a battery. It’s pretty amazing to see the nail pick up paper clips!
In math we are moving through the Investigations curriculum, and as we do so we are really enjoying adding a lot of math games to strengthen number sense and skills such as addition, subtraction, and understanding place value. Through math support teacher Kate Rob, and a class that I am taking with district math consultant Loree Silvis, we have learned many new games to play both as a whole class and with partners. Games such as “Shut the Box,” “Stick Drop,” “Count Around the Circle,” and “Score!” have been lots of fun and are building important skills. We also spend a lot of time playing Investigations games “Close to 100” and “Go Collecting.” Something that is exciting for me to see is students creating their own games. Chase and Tony created “Subtracting Wars,” and Taylor and Charlie are working on and addition game with tens frames cards. Justin, Trevor, and Jack are working on an addition game using 20 sided dice, and I know more students will come up with interesting ways to play with numbers. It’s wonderful to see the students so excited about working with math.
I found a new math site with lots of great activities. This is a site from the Netherlands, but game directions are in English, so students can play. There are all kinds of fun activities for fact fluency, place value practice, and other skills. The link is http://www.fi.uu.nl/rekenweb/en/welcome.xml
